‘Disgrace’ – Everton fans slammed for bottle incident vs Aston Villa
Everton fans have been blasted by the BT Sport studio after a bottle was thrown and hit two Aston Villa players at Goodison Park.
In what was a fiercely contested game on Merseyside, the Toffees ended up losing to Steven Gerrard’s side 1-0.
A big talking point came when Villa took the lead on the stroke of half-time thanks to an Emiliano Buendia header after a Lucas Digne corner, which the Blues fans didn’t react particularly well to.
With Villa celebrating in the corner they were pelted with lighters, coins and bottles thrown from the crowd, with a bottle striking both Digne and Matty Cash on the head.
BT Sport commentator Darren Fletcher and pundit Jermaine Jenas described the incident as ‘disgraceful’ and ‘disgusting’
“Well that [a bottle] is the reason why Lucas Digne is down,” Fletcher said live on commentary duty. “Something thrown from the crowd. Which is quite frankly disgraceful here at Goodison Park. Matty Cash was hit by it and so was Lucas Digne. That’s an absolute disgrace.”
Jenas was in the studio during half-time when he urged authorities to take action, claiming the game was ‘going back to the dark ages’.
“It’s disgusting. We’re going back to the dark ages of football. Bottles and coins are thrown onto the pitch. There need to be some serious punishments at all football clubs, this is not just Everton. This has happened at various stadiums all over the season. They need to stamp it out now.”
Disgusting
While Jenas is right to state that this isn’t an Everton problem and that it has stretched across the entire country, this incident is horrible.
The Villa players weren’t the smartest to celebrate right in front of the Everton fans after scoring, but that doesn’t give the fans the right to pelt them with objects.
They weren’t being overly hyped either, just celebrating amongst themselves for the most part and it’s poor from Everton fans.
The club should make an example of anyone they have found to be throwing things at the pitch and players and ban them, making it crystal clear that the club won’t stand for it.
Luckily in this instance Digne and Cash were okay, but next time they may not be so lucky.
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